No sanctions to be imposed on Armenian employers for not charging pension fees until March 28

YEREVAN, March 13. /ARKA/. No sanctions will be used against Armenian employers who fail to charge funded pension scheme fees until March 28, Armenia’s minister of labor and social affairs Artem Asatryan said at a government hour in the parliament Wednesday.

The minister also said the government has suspended the sanctions against citizens who had not selected their pension fund by January 1 2014.

On January 24 Armenia’s Constitutional Court suspended Article 76 of the new pension law, which provides for penalties for failed or delayed pension tax payments, and the third paragraph of Article 86, which obligates employed citizens to choose a pension fund, among other parts of the law. The Court said it will conclude the inquiry on March 28, 2014.

The constitutionality of the law was challenged by three opposition parties in the National Assembly — the Armenian National Congress, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, and the Heritage Party — along with the usually pro-government Prosperous Armenia Party.

The new pension system requires that all Armenian citizens born after 1973 pay social security taxes equivalent to 5 percent of their monthly wages, which will be matched and doubled by the government. That money has to be deposited with private pension funds licensed by the government late last December. –0--